Super Couponer Helps Save Turkey Day

Arrowhead’s Linda Espinosa using coupons at the checkout counter where she helped ensure 700 families had food for Thanksgiving..

Thanks to the coupon wizardry of an Arrowhead Credit Union staffer, the $757 million credit union in San Bernardino, Calif., was able to come up with about 5,000 pounds of food to donate to a local shelter.

Linda Espinosa said she regularly saves $5,000 to $6,000 a year herself by clipping coupons and knowing which stores to shop and when and she applied those skills to this year’s effort to help out at Mary’s Mercy House.

“What is most remarkable about Linda is that everything she buys at incredible discounts, she donates,” Arrowhead said in a press release.

And while working with a team of co-workers from Arrowhead, she helped ensure that more than 700 families would have a Thanksgiving meal, Arrowhead said. The team collected coupons and then filled five shopping carts and three SUVs in four hours of work.

“It’s a lot of work, but I love the joy I can bring to someone else, just by taking a little extra time and being smart about where I shop,” said Espinosa.

“We are very fortunate to have angels like this,” said Marsha Alguin, director of Mary’s Mercy Center.

From left, the Arrowhead team of volunteers delivered more than 2.5 tons of food to a local shelter: Doribel Martinez, Angela Bergamo, Linda Espinosa, Becky Holtz, Erica Ossko, Ann Wadagnolo and Renee Hunt-Moore.